Tuesday December 4, 2012, 5:24 am
That's an interesting recording of the "singing" of the dogs; a wild call of the wild!

The fact that the dogs climb trees and obviously can get down again raises a lot of questions about their anatomy - particularly about their paws and claws.

Some of the inbred specimens could perhaps, depending on safety for the wild dogs, could be returned to the wild, while other dogs could be captured to improve the genetics of the captive dogs. It would be sad if the dogs in New Guinea became extinct and the dogs kept in captivity in order to save the species were by then too inbred to survive.

Tuesday December 4, 2012, 5:28 am
I forgot to say that the "post modernist" nature of their singing or howling may be a special adaptation to the terrain, possibly to make the sound carry further.
Anyway, it could be a theme for an atonal symphony1

Tuesday December 4, 2012, 7:36 am
there are a number of domestic canine brreds originating in the South Pacific with unusual "singing" vocalization - wonder if there was either crossbreeding or a common ancestor?

here we see one of the drawbacks to breed-for-release programs - limited gene pools. they should indeed "swap out" specimens somehow, though the best means might be to trank parent dogs and introduce captive bredd unweaned puppies of the same age to their litters. (they are usually readily accepted as long as the original litter was small enough for the mother to adequately nurse them), and solitary adults brought into the breeding pool. we have used a similar solution with endangered birds, particularly hookbills, with good success.

Wednesday December 5, 2012, 6:47 am
one of the New Guninea singing dog's greatist threats is taxonomical classifycation.
if this animal is, in fact "a breed of dog" there is no reason to conserve it.
it would be like treating, let us say Beagles as their own speciese, unique to caninde.

if this animal is a unique speciese, it can get all the help it can get.